


Winds of Change

by NamelesslyNightlock



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Comfort, Disability, Established Relationship, Feels, Healing, Hope, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Injured Loki (Marvel), Injury, Loki (Marvel) Feels, Loki (Marvel) Lives, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Love, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Ocean, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sad, Storms, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Lives, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:15:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23199991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NamelesslyNightlock/pseuds/NamelesslyNightlock
Summary: Tony’s lost track of how long it’s been since Loki last uttered a word– but the sound of the ocean is a comforting reminder that no matter how bleak things feel, nothing stays the same forever.
Relationships: Loki/Tony Stark
Comments: 27
Kudos: 251





	Winds of Change

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AshAndSnow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshAndSnow/gifts).



> This one is for **AshAndSnow** , who was amazing enough to offer a prompt at the drop of the hat when I needed one, and who is just all round one of the best people I know ❤︎

The ocean never sounds the same twice.

Perhaps some can find the crash of waves monotonous, perhaps some allow it to lull them away to sleep. But to Tony, there is never a second that remains the same as the last.

The blink of a pause from one break to the next, a tiny gust of wind changing the shape of a wave, the cry of a bird on the crest of the breeze.

It’s never the same, never unchanging. The ocean is a reminder that time keeps _going_ , that the world keeps on moving forward.

That… maybe.

Just _maybe._

If Tony waits long enough, if he keeps watching the figure on the porch day after day… maybe one day, something might change.

Tony had long since lost track of how long it had been, the endless days of exactly the same becoming blurred. But the memory that remained burned into his mind as clear as finest crystal was the day that Loki had taken his hand on the battlefield.

The day that _Loki_ had borne the power of six infinity stones, the day that Loki had saved the universe.

The day that Loki had burned through his own mind.

Sometimes, Tony thought he saw some of the old Loki still in there, still fighting. Sometimes, he could almost imagine he felt Loki squeeze his hand when Tony moved him from his bed to the wheelchair, or that he saw Loki smile when Tony pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Almost.

But either way, it had been long enough that the time no longer mattered. And here they were, hidden away from the world that celebrated Loki as a hero—

And Loki, who had gone his whole life never receiving the credit he was due, always the one who was overlooked or condemned… Loki didn’t even know.

But, it was better this way. Tony knew that Loki wouldn’t want– he wouldn’t _have wanted_ anyone to see him like this. And Tony, he just… he knew what the others would say. He knew they might try to tell him that he was wasting his time, or worse– they might look at him with _pity._

Tony didn’t– he wasn’t mad. He didn’t feel hard done by, not by the fact that he had to look after Loki. It didn’t feel like a _chore._

He loved Loki with everything that he was, and to be here was a privilege. Loki might not have said a word since that day– he might not have looked Tony in the eye. He might not have done anything but stare out at the ocean every day, his blank gaze stuck on the rolling of the waves. He might never do anything else.

But none of that _mattered._ All that Tony cared about was that he was still _Loki_ , and Tony would be there for him until the very end. No matter how many years into the future that might be.

Tony shivered as the wind began to pick up, as the air gained a definite chill.

“Loki?” he asked, despite knowing that he was never going to get a verbal answer. “Do you want to head back inside? Looks like a storm’s coming.”

Loki didn’t respond, he didn’t so much as turn his head.

Tony sighed, and went inside to fetch a blanket. They could stay out for a little while, at least– the porch was over the cliff, but it was covered enough that they wouldn’t get wet save for in the harshest of tempests.

It only took the short time Tony was inside for the sky to turn dark, the blue of the ocean leeched to a steely grey. The waves were clashing hard against the rocks now, and a line of rain was approaching over the water, the starkness of it looking near on unnatural.

Another change, so severe and so quick– and Tony couldn’t draw his eyes away, not even as an unforgiving flash of lightning broke across the clouds to strike the surface of the water, the following crash harsh enough to rattle teeth.

“He never did like the ocean.”

Tony blinked, and his gaze snapped to Loki.

Loki’s voice was rough from disuse, little more than a gravelly hiss– but it was _Loki’s voice_ , and the sound of it had Tony’s lips parting in shock, his eyes scratching with a sudden onset of almost tears.

But as much as Tony wanted to go over there, as much as he wanted to clasp Loki’s face between his hands, to stare into his eyes, to find out if that mention of Thor was a sign that Loki truly was starting to come out of the shell caused by far too much trauma—

He was more than aware it would not only do nothing to help, but that it was certainly not what Loki needed from him in that moment.

So, instead, Tony simply crossed the distance in slow, even strides, carefully wrapped the blanket about Loki’s shoulders, and then… he took one of Loki’s cold hands in his own.

There was a moment.

A _second._

And then—

Loki’s fingers closed around his.

And as Loki continued to look out over the crashing waves, his eyes following the lines of lightning across the sky—

Tony watched with a small, but honest smile.

**Author's Note:**

>  **AshAndSnow's** prompt—
>
>> What I'm picturing is Loki recovering after being ill for a long time, or depressed works too. Like, in my head he's on a porch, overlooking the ocean, wrapped in a blanket, cheeks a lil sunken, and Tony's watching from the kitchen window. And then you can go either way, either have Tony think about the way things used to be and how he feels helpless. Or it can go the other way, Loki hums a lil tune or does something else he used to do but hasn't in a long time, and Tony almost feels like crying with this lil sign of improvement. 


End file.
